"The Sardar with the poker face," Punjab's best known comedian and satirist, the ubiquitous Jaspal Bhatti , who had regaled his ever-growing legion of friends, admirers and fans with his rib-tickling humour and always touched a chord by focusing on troubling social problems via his inimitable street side spoofs, died in a car accident outside Jalandhar City early morning on October 25.

Fifty-seven-year-old Bhatti, a graduate of Chandigarh's Punjab Engineering College, the very institution that produced adventuresome Indians like the astronaut Kalpana Chawla, started out as an electrical engineer in the city. Bhatti however shot off into a completely different orbit.

Exactly thirty years ago Bhatti and his friends, then including the late Bollywood actor Vivek Shauk, launched what quickly became highly popular as Chandigarh's Nonsense Club. Its 'grand opening' was played out on the dried out bed of the city's Sukhna Lake and instantly drew public attention to the dying water body rapidly silting up. Bhatti's unique club was to become an institution with a difference surviving entirely on its street performances and friendly contributions.

In 1995 he floated the 'Hawala Party' delighting passers by with his original poker faced takeoff on growing political corruption in the country which was already a hotly discussed topic in the context of the Jain-Hawala Diaries.

Even after graduating to becoming a much-loved comedian on television and in Bollywood films, Bhatti always returned to his original audiences in good old Chandigarh, never failing to delight them. And they never tired of him. Spot a larger than usual crown in the middle of Sector 17 and you could be sure that Bhatti Sahib was at it's center. You could find him telling people how he was going to start an academy to train young Bhagat Singhs inspired by the spate of films on the martyr some years ago. Once, amid a spate of dowry death reports, he arrived at the local women's college with a retinue of grooms, each with a price tag!

He was ready with a spoof for almost anything, even once applying for a poll symbol for a new party where only the corrupt would find entry. "You know it. we will be the largest political party in the country," he declared before amused election commission officials in Chandigarh. In time Bhatti carried his satire into popular TV features like Ulta-Pulta, Mahaul Theek Hai and Flop Show.

The Sardar who never failed to have his audiences in splits, has rather abruptly, left everyone in tears. Punjab mourns the loss as will his multitude of fans in the rest of India and the Diaspora.

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